Jay Lloyd's Getaway: Memories of Military Service
By Jay Lloyd
NEW LONDON, Conn. (CBS) -- With Veterans' Day on the horizon, let's take a look at some military getaways into the past.
When I was a kid, just old enough to remember, Dad took the family to West Point to see his World War I billet. On our visit, things weren't quite the way Dad remembered them.
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Many veterans make pilgrimages to countries and towns where they had been stationed. But for many among the thinning ranks of World War II and Korean War era vets, the journey turns out like Dad's: things have changed. Landmarks and favorite haunts are gone.
On a buddy trip to New London, Conn. with my friend Richard -- a Vietnam-era submarine service vet -- (top photo), Richard found much had remained the same.
But my old Coast Guard base had vanished. So had all my favorite liberty stops.
Another time, on a getaway to my onetime USCG seaplane base in Bermuda, I found it overgrown and abandoned.
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Now, museums and web sites keep the past alive. But on Veterans' Day, as in years past, we'll think about the buddies we knew and the places we've seen.
And, like Gen. MacArthur, we will return. It just won't be the same.
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